JENIN: Settlers attacked Palestinian families from the town of Ya’bad, west of Jenin, on Friday while they were harvesting olives, local sources reported.
Sources said that settlers assaulted the families while they were working on their land, including the family of brothers Wafiq and Muwafaq Houshiya.
They added that the settlers attacked the farmers near Khirbet Srouj, west of the town, and stole quantities of harvested olives, as well as harvesting equipment and tools.
The sources confirmed that the settlers had established a colonial outpost in Khirbet Srouj after forcibly displacing its Palestinian residents in recent months, as part of ongoing attacks targeting Palestinian land and farmers in the area to prevent them from accessing their property and harvesting olives.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements across the West Bank, all of which are deemed illegal under international law, and some of which, known as outposts, are built without Israeli government approval.
A rights group said settlers stormed a Palestinian village and injured five people on Thursday after the military dismantled illegal outposts.
The Israeli military said it intervened and took down two outposts built by settlers without permission in the occupied West Bank.
“After Israeli military forces left the area, dozens of settlers, armed with clubs, tear gas and stones, stormed the village of Atara,” the Israeli rights group Yesh Din said in a statement.
“Five residents were injured and hospitalized, one in serious condition with a brain hemorrhage,” Yesh Din added.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of the injured people was 67 years old.
The army said it had removed tents, vehicles and “temporary structures” erected by settlers in two outposts including one near Atara.
“During the enforcement activity near Atara, Israeli rioters barricaded themselves inside structures” and were dispersed, the military added.
Abdelhadi Atari, a resident of Atara and local journalist, said that settlers broke into and vandalized Palestinian houses soon after the army arrived.
“The fact that the army had blocked the village from several directions (ahead of the dismantling operation) also helped the settlers attack and operate freely during the assault inside the village,” Atari said.
“The children were terrorized. The settlers ripped doors off houses. Some houses had their doors torn off, and all the windows were smashed,” Atari added.
More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Gaza-based Hamas on Israel, mostly by Israeli soldiers but also by settlers, according to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian Health Ministry.
A number of countries including Britain and France in September announced trade sanctions on products from settlements over the violence.
